Squirt guns and water pistols are perennially popular toys for children and, more and more, for adults as well. Recent improvements in the area of squirt guns have caused an upsurge in their popularity as toys. These improvements include the introduction of high volume water pistols with high capacity water tanks. One popular version of the high volume water pistol is the "Super Soaker" from Larami Corp. which pumps out high velocity streams of water. Another recent improvement in the sophistication of water pistols, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,318, is a water pistol where the stream of water can be directed anywhere in 360 degrees.
Water pistols can be used for target shooting, but their most popular use is in simulated combat games where a number of players try to shoot one another with their water pistols. While these games are a lot of fun, they lack any quantitative measure of who has won the combat. After a particularly fierce or evenly contested battle it is often very difficult to determine who is the most (or least) soaked. One attempt to make it easier to score water pistol battles was the introduction of a nonstaining dye which can be loaded into the water pistols so that it is easier to tell where a player has been hit during combat. Another attempt is described in U.S. Pat. No 4,743,030 which shows a combat game set that includes a motorized water pistol and a special multilayer vest which indicates where it has been hit with water. That way, ordinary water can be used for the game instead of a special dye. While these attempts do make it easier to see who has been hit and who hasn't, it is still very much a qualitative judgement to determine who has been the actual winner of the combat game.
A number of quantitative or semi-quantitative targets have been devised for measuring the accuracy of a player's marksmanship with a water pistol. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,526,341; 1,551,899; 2,759,731; 3,336,030; 3,342,492; 3,362,713; and 3,572,712 show water gun targets which are designed for use in shooting galleries in amusement parks. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,273,746; 2,832,173; 3,434,717; 3,843,127; 4,040,622; 4,077,629; 4,135,559; 4,165,076; 4,223,894; 4,412,680 and 5,080,625 show water gun targets which are suitable for home use. Without exception, these water gun targets are designed as stationary targets and would not be suitable for a mobile simulated combat game.